The 90+ Steam Hall of Fame

Interesting posts here and as expected most of the high speeds recorded were with pacifics.

Some other mixed traffic, freight and tank classes achieved speeds in the 80s and occasionally 90s.
94 is mentioned with a BR class 5 on Sole Street bank in one of the books on the class but no date. In Northern Ireland the W class 2-6-0 and WT 2-6-4T are recorded at 85 and 86 mph respectively on the (London)derry road.

Other classes recorded at 80 or over include K3, 4700 2-8-0, Fairburn and standard class 4 tanks and Ivatt class 4, the latter 43106 on the Border Countryman in 1967.

The Western 1400 class 0-4-2 tanks are often quoted at exceeding 70 pushing one coach and I've seen 80 mentioned. Experienced train timers were unlikely to be riding on suburban or push-pull trains unless they had been tipped off that something special was going to be attempted!

 

Most remarkable amongst the regular 80-90 mph performers in the late 1950's were the Standard Class 9F 2-10-0 freight locomotives that were drafted in to the Great Central section to provide motive power for the express passenger services on this route (including the "Master Cutler" and "South Yorkshireman") in the wake of the London Midland Region takeover of the route in February 1958.

The Railway Observer's September 1958 edition published a log of 92164's performance on the down "Cutler", when, within an overall Leicester Central - Nottingham Victoria start-to-stop time of 23 minutes 12 seconds (!!!!) a maximum speed of 86 mph was recorded at Gotham, on the 1 in 176 descent from East Leake, about 6 miles south of Nottingham Victoria. I don't have the journal in which the log was published, but I believe that the driver may have been Ken Davies, of Leicester shed.

Such exhilerating performances were destined to be short-lived. Apparently the LMR were none too keen on their 9F's being driven in this way. In any event, the 9F's were only really suitable for summertime work given that they were unable to provide steam heating. And the crunch wasn't long in coming either, for the London Midland soon had its wicked way with the GC and withdrew all its daytime express passenger services within two years from its initial take over, on 2nd January 1960.

But it must have made an incredible sight, a locomotive with 5 foot 0 inch driving wheels travelling at these kind of speeds. Apparently, such speeds were commonplace on the 9F-hauled GC expresses for this brief period of time, as evidenced by generalised references to their performance in two excellent Ian Allan books about the Great Central - "The Great Central from the Footplate" (Robert Robotham/ Frank Stratford) and "The Great Central Railway's London Extension" (Robert Robotham). Maybe someone else could paint in a little more detail on 9F performance on GC express passenger services during this period.

 

90 mph was recorded on Stoke bank with no. 92184 on 16th August 1958. It took over an Edinburgh - KX express at Grantham.

According to the RCTS Locomotives of the LNER part 6C, page 83, V2 60881 was recorded at 101.5 mph, again on Stoke bank. This loco was the first to be fitted with Kylchap double blast pipe.

 

i remember doing 102.3 behind 3717 but forgot to wind my stopwatch.